TITLE - CONSISTENTLY INCONSISTENT is the title I'd like to use but if for whatever reason that's considered not appropriate then please go with DEFEAT By Michael McCann

The end of the report last week saw a warning that St Ives II had just beaten table-toppers Cherry Hinton. Unfortunately we became their latest scalp, unable to repeat the result on El Campo recently, when our 2nds beat their 4th team.

There were changes aplenty from the Ditton side that beat Over. Longy, Hugh, Mani, Jason, George and Paul C were out. In came Darren, H (keeping wicket), Wayne C, Butler, MVS for his maiden team first team game this season, and our forgotten man from Sussex Dobbo.

AB once again captained in place of Skip, though for the first time in a while it wasn't a really hot day, instead plenty of clouds, wind and some rain about. The newly-cut pitch and fast outfield still made it look decent to bat though, and St Ives won the toss and chose to do exactly that.

Openers Jackson and Clements both bowled largely decent lines and lengths to keep scoring to a really steady pace, St Ives 32-0 off 12 overs. From there more aggression eventually came, with Jacko very unfortunate not to snare one of the openers after forcing him into a number of false shots. Jacko conceded 27 from his 7 over spell after some tap towards the end. Wayne conceded just 27 from his 10 overs straight through, an exceptional effort of economy bowling once again. Our fielding was initially good and a run out seemed almost inevitable with some of the dangerous singles being taken.

AB took over proceedings from the Jackson End and produced a decent spell of 2-39, including bowling one opener for 19. That only brought in number 3 Edwards, who looked our visitors best bat, taking advantage of our (fairly regular) hot table deliveries to score a good 67 not out to hold the innings together. Whilst AB was weaving his spell Dobbo replaced Wayne at the Pavillion End, but didn't really find his rhythm and went for 15 from 2 overs came off. Fez replaced Dobbo and got a proper caught behind dismissal with his first ball to dismiss one of the openers for 41.

Fez getting in the 'wicket party' immediately brought in Rumman Hasan at 4, who with his high backlift sought to get after our West Indian, but the ball kept largely going much, much higher than it went further. The prodigious wind made catching difficult and he somehow managed to keep finding the gaps. Fez eventually deservedly got his man for 23, another skied shot this time thankfully falling somewhere near our man with the gloves, H. By this stage in the innings our fielding had unfortunately significantly dropped off, with dropped catches/catch refusals aplenty. Fez bowled a good spell with a field set for some short stuff, finishing with 8-0-44-2, very decent given as usual he always bowls at the hardest time of the innings.

We spent much of the innings looking like we'd keep St Ives to 150-160 but with fielding lapsing things got away from us a little. AB's second wicket came when visting captain Dack was caught by Jacko in the covers. Once AB's spell was done Rob filled in the last three from the Jackson End, conceding 20 but bowling Parker for 11 with the innings almost done. St Ives II eventually ending on a challenging 181-5.

Rob and McCann set about the chase, and the pair batted sensibly against some decent opening bowling to put Ditton 41-0 off the first ten overs. Not long afterwards the pair were separated, McCann unlikely to be bowled for 18 off 29 balls, when an angled forward defence rolled onto his stumps due to the back spin. AB came in and got after the change bowlers with great success, including a dismissive six towards the boundary, and Rob continued to progress. Ditton had reached 91-1 on the verge of drinks and were in total control, when AB went for a run-a-ball 25, rather disapointed to be given lbw to one from MVS.

Unfortunately from 91-1 we were to fall to our eventually demise and 159-9 from our 40 overs. Initially the signs had been promising, as Butler defied a lack of sleep after openly playing the 'raincard' on Friday night to build a decent innings, featuring some lovely off-side boundaries that were proper cricket shots. Meanwhile Rob quietly progressed to his 6th league fifty in a knock that leaves him now the 3rd highest run-scorer in our division.

It was a surprise when Rob went for 56 off 107 balls, visibly frustrated to hit a full toss to mid-wicket off change bowler Edwards. At this point the required-rate was only five-an-over, but wickets falling made that increasingly difficult, Edwards eventually taking 6-23. A full and straight ball from Edwards bowled Butler for a decent 20 from 32 deliveries. Darren and H were both out caught for 8 and 1 respectively. H avoiding a 4th duck to the dissapointment of Mani on Sunday at the Sharks match in Papworth. Mani has 4 and is currently leading the running for the award.

For the first time in his Ditton career all-rounder Fez came out at number 7, in a chase that was eerily reminiscent of Littleport at home. Wickets kept falling, MVS striking a nice boundary through mid-on before being caught off Edwards for 5 at mid-wicket. Dobson made a five-ball duck, bowled swinging at a straight one. Wayne was bowled by Edwards for a 4-ball duck, and Jacko kept out one delivery to get a red inker. Meanwhile the scorecard says Fez got 2 not out from 18 balls but doesn't tell the full story, as plenty of those 'dots' were singles turned down as he was our only hitter capable or arresting the climbing required run rate. Ditton falling 22 runs short, St Ives the deserved winners.

This defeat leaves us 9-7 this season with just two games left, and dropping to 4th. We face St Ives for a re-match next week once again at El Campo as their patch isn't available. Hopefully Skip and Longy returning can help us to get on the right side of the result.